r^A 



'■<^ 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE REPUBLICAN' 
CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 




SPEECH 



HON. W. M^KEE DUNN, OF INDIANA, 

Delivered in Independence Square, Philadelphia, May 26, 1860, 
before a Mass Meeting, held to ratify the nominations of 
Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin for the Presidency 
and Vice Presidency of the United States. 



My Fellow-Citizens : I am deeply 
impressed with the significance of the 
popular enthusiasm' demonstrated here 
this evening. This is the inauguration 
of the great contest of 1860 in the city of 
Philadelphia and the Slate of Pennsylva- 
nia ; and, fellow-citizens, I am impressed 
with the idea that the result of the contest 
in Pennsylvania depends, in a great de- 
gree, upon the result in this city, and that 
the result of the contest in this State will 
most probably be decisive of the struggle 
on the battle-field of the nation. If there 
be not in the great movement which now 
possesses the hearts of the American peo- 
ple some great predominating principle, 
if there be not some sense of outraged 
right, if there be not some deep convic- 
tion of wrong and corruption in the ad- 
ministration of the Government, I ask 
you what is the meaning of this excite- 
ment and these popular demonstrations? 
The nomination made at Chicago has 
struck the great popular heart. The peo- 
ple realize that the man whom the times 
demand is coming. They realize that 
the man who, springing from the body of 
the people, has struggled his way up 
through poverty, through all the difficul- 
ties and privations incident to the settle- 
ment of a new country, to be the candi- 
date of the great organization in opposition 
to the Democratic party, must be a man 
of mark, must be a man of talent, must 
be a man of integrity, must be a man 



upon whom the great public trust can rest 
in security. [Loud applause.] 

If, my fellow-citizens, there is in the 
movement of the Republican party no 
high, national, constitutional, American 
aim ; if it be not founded in reason, in 
law, in patriotism; if all this is an un- 
meaning huzza, or is purposeless beyond 
acquiring early control of (he Government 
and its places of honor and profit, then 
indeed do we behold a singular spectacle, 
and one altogether unworthy of the intel- 
ligence and patriotism of the American 
people, in that wild enthusiasm, manifest- 
ing itself in cheers and shouts, by mutual 
congratulations, the booming of cannon, 
the blaze of fire-works, by illuminations 
and processions, by the hasty assembling 
of vast and excited crowds, which began 
at Chicago, and has already extended 
from extremity to extremity of the great 
North and Noithwest. 

It will, however, be my hurried effort 
to show that for the Republican move- 
ment there has been and is a necessity, 
growing naturally out of the progress of 
events, and that its aim is as free from sec- 
tionalism as it is possible for any concen- 
trated movement involving Federal action 
to be, in a country of personal interests 
so varied and delicate as they are in ours. 

Good and great in its purposes and in 
its illustrious names, as was the old Whig 
party, its mission in most matters of mere 
policy terminated with that cycle of our 



hrslory which closed in the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise. Its piiiiciples, how- 
eier, s^urvive, ;iml will eiidtire to ilie cud 
ol lilt G'.veriiiiieni, in bnid o|)|i(>sitiori to 
those extrenips of r.->(licali>m which have 
ever marked the conduct of ilie Democratic 
party, and of that lecklessriess winch hesi- 
tates not, in its eager pursuit of party tri- 
umphs, to imperil the peace and prosper- 
ity of the country. 

The repeal of that compromise which 
gave peace to a distracted couiitry was 
one of lliDse acts of reckless partisanship 
characteristic of the Detnocratic organiza- 
tion. That repeal, and the associated 
movements to suhjuyate Kansas to shivery, 
gave hirth to the Republican party. Here, 
in ISot), in this youdly city of Philadel- 
phia, so sanctified in our hearts by its 
Revolutionary associations, the represent- 
atives of this party first met in National 
Convention. So iirejjular yet so sponta- 
neous was that movement, that I miirhi 
almost say the people themselves rushed 
together for consultation ; for if ever there 
was a people's parly, eminently distin- 
guished from a party of jiolilicians, this 
was such. Like Minerva, it burst into 
being full ff)rmed, and ready for aciion. 
No lime wa< had for caucus arrangements 
or combinalioiis, lor the .subtleties ol pro- 
fessional poliiiciai's ; no opportunity for 
concerted, careful co-operation, but our 
parly lushed to the strife with the eager- 
ness, hopefulness, and rashness of youth. 
The old, well-drilled, well-appointed army 
of our opponents, with its hosts of office- 
holders, with its baggage trains and well 
filled military chests, could not but be suc- 
cessful in such a contest. James Buchan- 
an, " Pennsylvania's favorite son," was 
elected, and at his inauguration was first 
seen faintly shining in the horizon the 
baleful rays of the Dred Scott decision, 
since become so famous in our political 
controversies — a decision which claims 
for slavery the highest rights of property, 
and that it can exist in our national Ter- 
ritorit^s in despiie of the nation's will, and 
in defiance at the will of llie people iii- 
habiiing the Territories — a decision which, 
carried lo its logical results, in fact, places 
slavery under national protection in every 
Statt; and Territory o( the Union — a de- 
cision hf) ill<•ol)^i.'■I(•lll with tlif! tcHchiiigs 
of our (atliL-rs and wiih the previous uiii- 
futm coufbe of judicial authority, and I 



may say so startling to the national con- 
science, that it ha^ united and compacted 
(lieeleinenls ol' opposition to this Atiniinis- 
iralioii, in Stales haviiiij the constitutional 
power, and therefore the right, to make a 
President; and we stand belore the coun- 
try to-day, a great, powerful, well-organ- 
ized, disciplined party, ready to meet the 
enemies of our institutions and of the 
peace of our country at the ballot-box, 
and there settle these (jur.stions, which 
will give us no repose until the party that 
violates compromises and seeks to protect 
and advance but one interest is utterly 
overthrown and cast down. And here, . 
to-night, in the presence of this mighty 
assemblage, I |)roclaim that the Republi- 
can party, noiwiihstaiiding the imprudent 
zeal and crude utterances of many of its 
too ardent supporters — I say the Repub- 
lican party has proposed nothing, has 
threatened nothing, has shadowed forth 
nothing, which, in substance, has not 
had the sanction, both North and South, 
of the most eminent statesmen our coun- 
try has produced. 

Have the past four years demonstrated 
any necessity for the continuance and 
progress of thrf Republican party ? I ask 
the question, when its simple annuncia- 
tion suggests that it is the only hopeful 
opposition to that Democracy whose mis- 
conduct gave it birth, and who, in the 
present Administration, have so signally 
disturbed and disgraced the country by 
stirring up strife at home, by an offensive 
foreign policy, by attempted filibustering, 
by unscrupulous efforts to acquire Cuba, 
by degrading home and foreign appoint- 
ments, by a corrupt dispensation of public 
patronage, by defaulting ofiiceis of most 
conspicuous positions, by an annual ex- 
penditure of over $80,000,000, by treach- 
ery and outrage in Kansas, by its counte- 
nance of and yielding to tlie most ex- 
treme Southern demands — demands which 
coldly look to the alternative of the abso- 
lute control of the Government by a mi- 
nority, or a (lissolulioii of the Union. 

I liave no lime here to array proof of 
these charges. You know they are true. 
The country is painfully conscious of their 
truth. Now, i( the power of this Govern- 
ment is to be wrested Irora the hands that 
have so abused that power, I ask you 
what parly is to do h> What strong arm 
is to btreich forth and wiest from the 



Democratic hands its baton of authority? 
It is my humble bebef that Providence has 
raised up and ordained the Republican 
party for this great work, and in its good 
right arm is our deliverance. The wel- 
fare of our country demands that this party 
shall progress with moderation and force 
and will to ultimate success. 

That the principles and purposes of our 
party are misunderstood, as well as inten- 
tionally misrepresented, you well know. 
That our purposes are not extreme, but 
moderate and conciliatory, let the action 
of the Republican representation in Con- 
gress, during the present session, attest. 
We have marched steadily forward in the 
discharge of our public duties, notwith- 
standing the intemperate abuse and al- 
most indecency of attack to which we 
have been subjected. And I rejoice to 
bear such testimony. We pt)int to our 
record, it may be, with too partial pride, 
but we feel the proud consciousness of 
desiring to act with justice and fairness 
to all sections of our beloved country. 

We have no aims but for our country's 
good. The Republican party, in every 
authoritative way it could adopt, has dis- 
claimed all purpose or desire to interfere 
with the domestic institutions of any of 
the Stales. But we claim a constitutional 
right to do as our fathers did, and, like 
them, prevent the extension of slavery 
into our Territories. We claim the right 
to use every constitutional authority in 
behalf of the interests of free labor, look- 
ing to the welfare of our children's chil- 
dren, to far-off cities, commerce, schools, 
and all the varied enterprises of peaceful 
civilization to be accomplished by the la- 
bor of a free people. If such sentiments 
be treasonable, then our fathers — the men 
who met, and counselled, and determined, 
in that Hall of Independence — were trai- 
tors. 

And the South, why should she com- 
plain when we ask to settle this slavery 
question as our fathers did, and let the 
country again have repose? The South 
boasts that she has the best part of our 
goodly inheritance. Lei her enjoy it in 
peace and prosperity. She has now suf- 
ficient territory to supply all her demands 
for cultivation for perhaps a century to 
come. Let her be satisfied with her rich 
possessions. In corning years, when the 
present actors on the stage of public life 



shall have nil passed away, public senti- 
ment may undergo an entire revolution. 
The Soutli may become satisfied that sla- 
very is not the blessing she now claims it 
to be, or the North may cease to regard it 
as an evil, and thus this distracting ques- 
tion, in the peaceful progress of events, 
may work out its own solution. Let ua 
postpone to the future what belongs to 
the future. 

The honorable gentleman from Massa- 
chusetts, [Mr. Train,] at the commence- 
ment of his speech, bore you a greeting 
from his Stale — from Faneuil Hall to In- 
dependence Hall. I bring you a greeting 
from Indiana. I bring to you, dwellers on 
the banks of the Delaware and the Schuyl- 
kill, a greeting from the shores of the 
Ohio and the Wabash; and the mes- 
sage which I bear is, that the election of 
Abrahau) Lincoln is a necessity, if we ex- 
pect to carry on our Government in pros- 
perity and peace. [Applause.] 

A voice. "He's safe." 

In Mr. Lincoln we have a candidate 
who comes not before you as the result of 
party machinations and party arrange- 
ments. Two weeks ago he was scarcely 
looked upon as a possible candidate, not 
because he was not equal to the demands 
of the times, but because other names 
were more prominently before the public, 
and because in his modesty, in that sim- 
plicity of character which has ever distin- 
guished him, he stood back, knowing that 
when the public wanted him, the public 
would call for him. [Applause.] It is 
such men we want in this country; not 
the men who climb up to high position by 
daily struggle, with the eye always fixed 
upon that elevation, but the men who go 
bravely forward in the discharge of the 
daily duties of life, without reference to 
what may be the eifect upon their own 
advancement. Such a man is Abraham 
Lincoln, or " Old Abe," as he is familiarly 
and endearingly called by his neighbors 
and friends. Out West, fellow-citizens, 
we use that word old not as signifying 
" aged," but as a word of friendship and 
endearment. This man whom we com- 
monly call "Old Abe," is only fifty-one 
years of age. He is in the very prime of 
manly vigor, ready to take hold of the 
helm of State, and guide it with firmness 
in every emergency. [A voice. "Just 
like old Jackson."] Yes, he is of the Old 



t6 



Hickory stamp. He was trained in llie 
same kind of school as that in which Gen. 
Jackson jjrpw up. He was a VVesiern 
pioneer. He grew up among the big trees 
that stood tiiick in the VVesiern torests. 
His early struggles were with the giant 
oaks. But he triumphed over those giants 
of the forests as he has triumphed over all 
the giants he has since encountered. [Ap- 
plause.] Here is a man who, in early life, 
had no opportunities of education ; who, 
when he was a boy, was a common hired 
laborer to the farmers of his neighborhood. 
He was the son of a poor man, and had a 
family early thrown upon him for support. 
In the woods of Indiana, he went around 
helping his neighbors to roll logs, to raise 
their houses, lo husk their corn, and took 
part with them in all the avocations of life. 
It was such an experience that made his 
heart big. His heart was first educated, 
and afterwards his head. [Applause.] He 
now stands an acknowledged leader, rank- 
ing with the first men of his State; and 
he will soon be recognised as among the 
first men of this nation and of the world. 
[Loud Applause. " Three cheers for ' Old 
Abe.' "] 

I heard some gentlemen inquire a while 
ago what kind of a stalcsmrin he was. 
Now, there are some men vt'ho have an 
idea that nobody can be a great statesman 
unless he has been a great brawler before 
the people; that no man can be a great 
statesman unless he has been a long while 
in Congress — in my judgment, not a very 
good school in which to train our Presi- 
dents. [Laughter.] I tell you that in this 
nation our virtues grow up strongest in 
the country, on the fields, and in the 
fihops. 

I have not time, nor am I disposed to- 
night to talk about the platform which 
was made at Chicago, and upon which 
I suppose Mr. Lincoln ^vill stand. I re- 
gard this platform as in most respects 
admirable, but I have not a very high re- 
gard for platforms generally. 1 have seen 
them so often disregarded, that I have al- 
most come to view them as ingenious 
contrivances to cheat the people. Let 
me give you an illustration. Don't you 
know that in 18.o2 the Democratic party, 
at Baliifiiore, resolved unaniinously and 
iipioarioiisly that the agitation of slavery 
bhi)uld cease, both in Congress and out 
of Congress? Don't you know that in 



1856, at Cincinnati, they reiterated that 
resolution, and that they tried to make 
the same resolve again down at Charles- 
ton \ Yet, since the day that resolution 
was first adopted, that party has done 
nothing else in the world but agitate, agi- 
tate, agitate, this same irritating question 
of slavery. They would not let it rest. 
They forced it upon the country every- 
where and upon all occasions. This 
question broke up the Whig party, it 
broke up the American party, and at last 
it has struck its hard head against the 
Demooratic vase, and shivered it to pieces. 
But J beg leave, gentlemen, to refer you 
to the history of James Buchanan as 
President of the United States, as a fair 
answer to the question whether, after all 
said and done, the man who is to occupy 
the White House is not the main thing? 
[Laughter.] 

Fellow-citizens, I happened the other 
day to be in the Senate Chamber when the 
Hon. Mr. Benjamin, Senator from Louisi- 
ana, was making a speech, not very friendly 
in its purposes, nor very comforting, I 
should imagine, in its results, to the hon- 
orable Senator from Illinois, [Mr. Doug- 
las.] I was struck with one passage of 
that speech, which I beg leave to read to 
you. You know that the memorable de- 
bate between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lin- 
coln has been published in book form. 
I hope it will be read by the American 
people everywhere. Mr. Benjamin has 
been reading that book, he has been 
studying it, and he states his views of the 
great debate in the passage of his speech 
which I shall read. Mr. Benjamin, being 
a slaveholder, would, of course, be very 
sensitive upon anything in reference to 
the institution of slavery. He says : 

" In that contest the two candidates for 
' the Senate of the United Slates, in the 
' State of Illinois, went before their peo- 
' pie. They agreed to discuss the issues; 
' they put questions to each other for 
' answer ; and I must say here, for I must 
' be just to all, that I have l)een surprised, 
' in the examination that I made again 
' within the last few days of this discus- 
' sion between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
' Douglas, to find that Mr. Lincoln is a 
' far more conservative man, unless lie 
' has sinew changed his opinions, than I 
' supposed him to be." 

Mr. Benjamin finds Mr. Lincoln a far 



more conservative man than he supposed 
liim to be. Yes, Mr, Lincoln has been 
misunderstood and misrepresented, just 
as the Republican party has been, as the 
People's party has been, as the American 
party has been — just as every party is mis- 
understood and misrepresented that does 
not bow down in submission to Demo- 
cratic domination. 

Mr. Benjamin continues: 

" There was no dodging on his part, 
' Mr. Douglas started with his questions. 

* Here they are, with Mr. Lincoln's an- 

* swers : 

" ' Question 1. I desire to know wheth- 
' er Lincoln to-day stands pledged, as he 

* did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional 
' repeal of the fugitive slave law ? 

" ' Ansv}er. I do not now, nor ever did, 
' stand pledged in favor of the uncondi- 
' tional repeal of the fugitive slave law. 

" ' Question 2. I desire him to answer 
' whether he stands pledged to-day, as he 
' did in 1S54, against the admission of any 
' more slave States into the Union, even 

* if the people want them. 

" 'Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, 

* stand pledged against the admission of 
' any more slave States into the Union. 

" ' Question 3. I want to know whether 
' he stands pledged against the admission 

* of a new State into the Union with such 
' a Constitution as the people of that State 
' may see fit to make ? 

" ' Answer. I do not stand pledged 
' against the admission of a new State into 
' the Union with such a Constitution as 

* the people of that State may see fit to 

* make. 

" ' Question 4. f want to know whether 

* he stands to-day pledged to the aboli- 

* tion of slavery in the District of Colum- 
'bia? 

" ' Answer. I do not stand to-day pledg- 
' ed to the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 

* trict of Columbia. 

" ' Question 5. I desire him to answer 
' whether he stands pledged to the prohibi- 

* tion of the slave trade between the dif- 
' ferent States.'* 

" ^Answer. I do not stand pledged to 
' to the prohibition of the slave trade be- 

* tween the different States. 

" ' Question 6. I desire to know wheth- 
' er he stands pledged to prohibit slavery 
' in all the Territories of the United States, 



' north as well as south of the Missouri 
' compromise line ? 

" 'Answer. I am impliedly, if not ex- 
' pressly, pledijed to a belief in the right 
' and duly of Congress to prohibit slavery 
' in all the United Slates Territories. 

" ' Question 7. I desire him to answer 
' whether he is opposed to the acquisition 
' of any new territory unless slavery is first 
' prohibited therein .? 

" ' Answer. I am not generally opposed 
' to honest acqiiisiiion of territory, and, in 
' any given case, I would or would not 
' oppose such acquisition, accordingly as 
' I might think such acquisition would or 
' would not aggravate the slavery (]uestion 
' among ourselves.' " — Debates of Lincoln 
and Douglas, page 88.* 

Now, on these, Mr. Lincoln's answers 
to Mr. Douglas's questions, Senator Ben- 
jamin, a slaveholder, and representing a 
slaveholding constituency, makes this 
commentary : 

" It is impossible, Mr. President, how- 
' ever we may differ in opinion with the 
' man, not to admire the perfect candor 
' and frankness with which these answers 
' were given ; no equivocution — no eva- 
' sion." 

That is the character of the man ; and 
T venture to say there is not a voter in the 
Slate of Pennsylvania who will not in his 
heart of hearts endorse every answer here 
given by Mr. Lincoln. 

What is Mr. Lincoln's position on an- 
other question which is regarded as a 
matter of great interest in Pennsylvania 
How does he stand in regard to the p 
tection of American industry ? Fellu.r- 
citizens, a few days ago, a friend of mine 
remarked to me, that in 1844 he was 
down in the southern part of Indiana, 
making a speech for Henry Clay. While 
he was addressing the crowd, a stranger 
came in, and when my friend had con- 
cluded, this stranger was called upon to 
speak; " and," said my friend, " he made 
one of the clearest, fullest, most conclu- 
sive arguments in favor of Clay's great 
American system, that I ever listened to." 
Who was that man, who, sixteen years 
ago, was supporting your interests? It 
was this same " old Abe Lincoln." He 
does not assume a tariff guise to-day; he 
does not avow such principles now, to get 



* See Note, page 6. 



votes in Pennsylvania, or in Massachu- 
setts, or in any oilier manufacturing Slate 
of the Union, but for a long period of 
years he lias been a tariff man from prin- 
ciple. He is a disciple of Henry Clay. 
[Loud applause.] He has borne the Hag 
of Clay from county to county, from dis- 
trict to district, all over the State of Illi- 
nois. In 1844, when Clay was a can- 
didate for ihe Presidency, Lincoln was 
on the State electoral ticket, and no man 
in that contest did better, more hearty, 
more etlective service, for the Sage of 
Ashland, than did the man whom we now 
proudly present lo you as our candidate 
i'or the Presidency. 

Before I conclude these hurried and in- 
terrupted remarks, I must call your atten- 
tion, gentlemen, to an important circum- 
stance connected with Lincoln's nomi- 
DHtion. It is this. Since the organiza- 
tion of the old Whig party, no candidate 
opposed by the Democracy has been elect- 
ed to the Presidency, unless such candi- 
date had been in some manner particular- 
ly identified with Indiana. We could not 
elect Clay, ue could not elect Fremont, 
for neither of them had ever lived in Indi- 
ana, or been identified vviih her history. 
But we elected General Harrison, for he 
had been the Governor of Indiana Terri- 
tory, and had fought the battle of Tippe- 
canoe on Indiana soil. We elected Gen. 
Taylor, for he had, as a major in the Uni- 
ted States service, defended our Western 
border, and commanded our Indiana vol- 
unteers in the war of 1812. 

And we can elect Lincoln, for we pre- 
pared him, in Indiana, when he was a boy, 
lor the high duties of that responsible po- 
sition. The road to the Presidency runs 
through Indiana, and " Old Abe " is on it, 
far ahead of all competitors. [Applause.] 



NOTE. 

In further explanation of his vievrs, Mr. Lin- 
coln, in the same speech, remarks as follows : 

" Now, my friends, it will be perceived, upon 
an examination of these questions and answers, 
thai so far I have only answered that I was not 
pledged to this, that, or the other. The Judge 
has not framed his interrogatories to ask me 
anything more than this, and I have answered 
ill strict accordance with the interrogatories, and 
have answered truly that I am noi pLedyed at all 
upon any of the points to which 1 have answered. 
But I am not disposed to hang upon the exact 



J form of his interrogatory. I am rather disposed 
to take up at least some of these questions, and 
state what 1 really think upon them. 

" As to the first one, in regard to the fugitive 
slave law, I have never hesitated to say, and I 
do not now hesitate to say, that I think, under 
the Constitution of the United States, the people 
of the Southern States are entitled to a Congres- 
sional fugitive slave law. Having said that, I 
have had nothing to say in regard to the existing 
fugitive slave law, further than that I think it 
should have been framed so as to be free from 
some of the objoctions that pertain to it, without 
lessening its eOiciency. And, inasmuch as we 
are not now in an agitation in regard to an alter- 
ation or modification of that law, I would not be 
the man to introduce it as a new subject of agi- 
tation upon the general question of slavery. 

" In regard to the other question, of whether 
r am pledged to the admission of any more slave 
States into the Union, I state to you very frankly 
that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put 
in a position of having to pass upon that ques- 
tion. I should be exceedingly glad to know that 
there would never be another slave State admit- 
ted into the Union ; but I must add that, if sla- 
very shall be kept out of the Territories during 
the territorial existence of any one given Terri- 
tory, and then the people shall, having a fair 
chance and a clear field when they come to 
adopt the Constitution, do such an extraordinary 
thing as to adopt a slave Constitution, uninflu- 
enced by the actual presence of the institution 
among them, I see no alternative, if we own the 
country, but to admit tbem into the Union. 

"The third interrogatory is answered by the 
answer to the second ; it being, as I conceive, the 
same as the second. 

" The fourth one is in regard to the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia. In rela- 
tion to that, I have my mind very distinctly made 
up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery 
abolished in the District of Columbia. I believe 
that Congress possesses the constitutional power 
to abolish it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I 
should not, with my present views, be in favor 
of endeavoring to abolish slavery in the -District 
of Columbia, unless it would be upon these con- 
ditions : First, that the abolition should be grad- 
ual. Second, that it should be on a vote of the 
majority of qualified voters in the District. And 
third, that compensation should be made to un- 
willing owners. With these three conditions, I 
confess I would be exceedingly glad to see Con- 
gress abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, 
and, in the language of Henry Clay, ' sweep from 
our c!i|f)ital that foul blot upon our nation.' 

" In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must 
say here, that as to the question of the abolition 
of the slave trade between the different States, I 
can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to 
nothing about it. It is a subject to which I have 
not given that mature consideration that would 
make ine feel authorized lo state a position so as 
to hold myself entirely bound by it. In other 
words, that question lits never been prominently 
enough before me to induce me to investigate 



•whether we really have the constitutiotiftl power 
to do it. I could investigate it if I had siiQicient 
time, to bi-iri": mjselfto a couclusiou upon that 
subject ; but 1 have not done so, aud 1 say so fraulv- 
ly to you here, and to Judge Douglas. 1 must say, 
however, tliat if I should be of opinion that Con- 
gress does possess the constitutional power to 
abolish the slave trade among the dillerent 
Stajtes, I should still not be in favor of the exer- 
cise of that power, unless upon some conserva- 
tive principle, as I conceive it, akin to what 1 
have said in relation to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. 

" My answer as to whether I desire that slave- 
ry should be prohibited in all the Territories of 
the United States is full aud explicit within itself, 
and cannot be made clearer by any comments of 
mine. So I suppose, in regard to the question 
whether 1 am opposed to the acquisition of any 
more territory unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein, my answer is such that I could add 
nothing by way of illustration, or making myself 
better understood, than the answer which I have 
placed in writing. 

" Now, in all this, the Judge has me, and he 
has me on the record. I suppose he had flat- 
tered himself that I was really entertaining one 
set of opinions for one place and another set for 
another place — that I was afraid to say at one 
place what I uttered at another. What I am 
saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience as 
strongly tending to abolitionism as any audience 
la the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saying 
that which, if it would be offensive to any per- 
sons, and render them enemies to myself, would 
be offensive to persons in this audience." — Lin- 
coln and Douylas Debates, pp. 88, 89. 



Eepiiblican Platform adopted by the Chi- 
cago Convention, May 17, 1860. 

Resolved, That we, the delegated representa- 
tives of the Republican Electors of the United 
States, in Convention assembled, in the discharge 
of the duty we owe to our constituents and our 
country, unite in the following declarations : 

First. That the history of the nation during 
the last four years has fully established the pro- 
priety and necessity of the organization and per- 
petuation of the Republican party, and that the 
causes which called it into existence are perma- 
nent in their nature, aud now, more than ever 
before, demand its peaceful and constitutional 
triumph. 

Second. That the maintenance of the principles 
promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, 
and embodied in the Federal Conrtitution, is es- 
sential to the preservation of our republican in- 
stitutions ; that the Federal Constitution, the 
rights of the States, and the Union of the States, 
must and shall be preserved ; and that we reas- 
sert " these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal ; that they are endovred by their 
Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that 
aftiong these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. That to secure these rights. Govern- 
ments are instituted among men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." 



Third. That to the Union of the States this 
nation owes its unprecedented increase in popu- 
lation ; its surprising development of material 
resources ; its rapid augmentation of wealth ; 
its happiness at home and its honor abroad; and 
we hold in abhorrence all schemes for disunion, 
come from whatever source they may ; and we 
congratulate the country that no Rep^Iicim 
member of Congress has uttered or countenanced 
Jift threat of disunion, so often made by Demo- 
cratic members of Congress without rebuke and 
with applause from their political associates ; 
and we denounce those threats of disunion, iu 
case of a popular overthrow of their ascenden- 
cy, as denying the vital principles of a free Gov- 
ernment, and as an avowal of contemplated trea- 
son, which it is the imperative duty of an in- 
dignant people strongly to rebuke and forever 
silence. 

Fourth. That the maintenance inviolate of 
the rights of the States, and especially the right 
of each State to order and control its own do- 
mestic institutions, according to its own judg- 
ment exclusively, is essential to that balance of 
power on which the perfection and endurance of 
our political faith depends ; and we denounce the 
lawless invasion by armed force of any State or 
Territory, no matter under what pretext, as 
among the gravest of crimes. 

Fifth. That the present Democratic Adminis- 
tration has far exceeded our worst apprehensions 
in its measureless subserviency to the exactions 
of a sectional interest, as is especially evident 
in its desperate exertions to force the infamous 
Lecompton Constitution upon the protesting peo- 
ple of Kansas — in construing the personal rela- 
tion between master and servant to involve an 
unqualified property in persons — in its attempted 
enforcement everywhere, on land and sea, through 
the intervention of Congress and the Federal 
courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely lo- 
cal interest, and in its general and unvarying abuse 
of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people. 

Sixth. That the people justly view with alarm 
the reckless extravagance which pervades every 
department of the Federal Government; that a 
return to rigid economy and accountability is in- 
dispensable to arrest the system of plunder of the 
public Treasury by favored partisans ; while the 
recent startling developments of fraud and cor- 
ruption at the Federal metropolis show that an 
entire change of Administration is imperatively 
demanded. 

Seventh. That the new dogma that the Consti- 
tution of its own force carries slavery into any 
or ail of the Territories of the United States, is a 
dangerous political heresy, at variance with the 
explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with 
cotemporaneous exposition, and with legislative 
and judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its 
tendency, and subversive of the peace and har- 
mony of the country. 

Eighth. That the normal condition of all the 
territory of the United States is that of Freedom ; 
that as our republican fathers, when they had 
abolished slavery in all our national territory, 
ordained that no person should be deprived of 
life, liberty, or property, without due process of 



law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, when- 
ever such legislation is necessary, to maintain 
this provision of the Constitution against all at- 
tempts to violate it; and we deny the authority 
of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of 
any individuals, to give legal existence to sla- 
very in any Territory of the United States. 

It'ini.V That we brand the recent reopening of 
the AlTican slave trade, under the cover of our 
national flag, aided by perversions of judicial 
power, as a crime against humanity, a burningA 
shame to our country and age ; and we call upon 
Congress to take prompt and efiScient measures 
for the total and final suppression of that exe- i 
crable traffic. I 

Tenth. That in the recent vetoes by their Fed- 
eral Governors of the acts of the Legislatures 
of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery in 
those Territories, we find a practical illustration ' 
of the boasted Democratic principles of non-in- 
tervention and popular sovereigntv, embodied in ' 
the Kansas and iNebraska bill, and a denuncia- 
tion of the deception and fraud involved therein. 

Eleventh. That Kansas should of right be im- 
mediately admitted as a State under the Consti- 
tution recently formed and adopted by her people, 
and accepted by the House of Representatives. 

Twelfth. That while providing revenue for the 
support of the General Government by duties 
upon imports, sound policy requires such an ad- 
justment of these duties as to encourage the de- 
velopment of the industrial interests of the whole 
country ; and we commend that policy of nation- , 
al exchanges, which secures to the working men 
liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, 
to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate 
reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and ' 



to the nation commercial prosperity and inde- 
pendence. 

Thirteenth. That we protest against any sale 
or alienation to others of the public lands held 
by actual settlers, and against any view of the 
free homestead policy which regards the settlers 
as paupers or supplicants for public bounty ; and 
we demand the passage by Congress of the com- 
plete and satisfactory homestead measure which 
has already passed the House. 
; Fourteenth. That the Republican party is op- 
posed to any change in our naturalization laws, 
or any State legislation by which the rights of 
citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from 
foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired ; and 
in favor of giving a full and efficient protection 
to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether 
native or naturalized, both at home and abroad. 

Fifteenth. That the appropriations by Congress 
for river and hasbor improvements of a nation- 
al character, required for the accommodation 
and security of an existing commerce, are author- 
ized by the Constitution and justified by an ob- 
ligation of the Government to protect the lives 
and property of its citizens. 

Sixteenth. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean 
is imperatively demanded by the interests of the 
whole country ; that the Federal Government 
ought to render immediate and efficient aid in 
its construction ; and that, as preliminary thereto, 
a daily overland mail should be promptly es- 
tablished. 

Seventeenth. Finally, having thus set forth our 
distinctive principles and views, we invite the 
co-operation of all citizens, however differing on 
other questions, who substantially agree with us 
in their aflirmance and support. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
1860. 

Published by the Republican Congressional Committee. Price 50 cents per hundred. 



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